Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-11-09
within the past month but none better
|

within the past month Dut none DeLter
than this.
Said Mr.. Powell:
Veterans of the Mexican war: In
behalf of its patriotic citizens | formally
bid you welcome to the city OF Fort
Worth. In your majestic presence q
Thousand fancies stir my imagination and
crowd for utterance across my lips. l
speak to you over the grave Of an inter
veniDg generation with heart full Of ad-
miration for your great deeds. and the
proud consciousness that 1 st last stand
face to face with the defenders Of Texas
] and the founders of CREST country.
This is proud day for Texas, and its
pulse throbs with Joy as your feet once
more press the soil made sacred OF your
blood. Her sons and daughters have
but one thought, and that Is you. The
wild grasses upon the prairies, the late
autumn flowers, the birds, the bees, the
rivers and running brooks-sl nature,
animate and inanimate-are swelling the
chorus song of this glorious celebration
day.
Your presence does honor to our young
city, and its thousands of homes are
open to you. "Welcome" is written
on every heart and face, and the mute
|
speaks that which tongues fain would
tell. Could you go into those homes you
there would see mothers and fathers tell
ing the story of your martial deeds ond
patriotic heroism. On their knees and
circled around them, are children whose
young hearts sweIl,sas with bated breath
they listen. You would see the great
grand children Of your generation with
| throbbit g bosoms and cheeks csrnationed
like the rose petal as they are told the
story of your triumphs upon the field OF
battle. You would perhaps see some
young descendant of q dead comrade
with his face pressed against his mothers
breast as she soothes the passions excited
| by her words. How your own hearts
must throb when you fhlnk Of the four
generations that honor you in life. Old
age, with pslsied limbs-manhOOd and
w0manhood in the full flush of maturity
youth in its green spring, and
childhood in its innocent beauty
all, all honor and love you.
You occupy the most enviable position
that men can hold in the history OF any
country. You are the founders Of an
empire. Your name and fame is carried
upon its first, best, brightest, puresG
page. And while it is mol my purpose TO
| speak st length of the Mexican War-
leaving that for others older and abler
tDan myself Will go back to the year
1916. Then the city of Fort Worth SUM
| bered an unexpected possibility in the
Vsst womb of the future. According to
the meagre historical record to be had
| the feet Of but two white men had then
pressed the soil which now holds this
proud young city. The ripping OF the
two rivers at its northern end had sung
their sweet, miDgling music to the ears OF
dusky sweethearts and lovers, but the
''paie faces" had never peered into their
depths, or been soothed with the murmur
Of their flow. Buffalo bro1sed upon the
spot where now stands this theatre.
| Wild animals and wilder men took
observations from the high bluff within
i bowshot. The great prairies
stretching hundreds of miles toward the
setting sun was savage waste ruled by
savage men. When l contemplate the
past and present, and realize how mighty
have been the fruits Of these years, am
| filed with wonder and amaZement. Then
Texas was indeed "rugged nurse" OF
brave men. The war for Texan indie
pendence had been fought, and the fame
of Sam Houston had risen to a star of
first magbitude-the brightest orb in all
the night of our history. The state was
| Just futtering into its new place among the
United States when, with protest about
boundary lines, Mexico precipitated war
with our government. l will not dwell
upon the triumphs of that brilliant war.
They are but sublime dream to me. The
battles we're fought, the victories Won,
and Freedom breathed another prayer Of
Joy over new land of the free.
Picture the desolate condition of Texas
as it was then, in the light of civilization,
and view 1t today See the proud cities
rearing their heads where broWsed the
buffalo and deer; note The thousands Of
miles Of railway stretching their huge
gridlron form over and across the home
Of the savage; listen to the hum
Of civilization in farm house, hamlet,
village, town and city; look around you
and see evidences of an advanced social
order, and know that you and your dead
comrades contributed to all this.
You are OF the few whose fame is
not furnished with Time in his remoTse-
less fight. His pinions, as he fits away,
but fans the bright fires of patriotism, IN
whose light you will ever stand in the
perspective. Other men may come and
20, lS6flHS d ISCOtu dS STcdG III U6SuS as
yours, but unless like yours their fame is
written upon the first page of their coun-
trY's history, they will, with individual
exceptions, be forgotten when children of
many generations to come are lisping
with their earliest words of your triumphs
upon the field of battle.
[ bid you welcome to q city named after
one of the gallant heroes of the Mexican
wsr. In the year 1649, Major Ripley
Arnold Of the Second Dragons, in loc.t-
ing line of posts, then recently deslg-
nsteI to extend from the Rcd
river southwardly to the Rio
Grsnde, camped about one mile north
east of this city, but subsequently
the camp was moved to the head of Hous-
ton street, just four blocks from where
you are now seated. The spot was desig-
mated one of the line of posts and the
commanding officer christened it "Fort
WORTH in honor OF the brave and gal
liant General William jenkins Worth.
Some Of you may have been with that
great general when he stormed the heights
commanding the Bishops palace st Mon
terey. This was forty years ago on
the 21st OF September last, but as 1 look
into YOUR faces the scene comes before